Poll: Some in Sask. ready to join U.S.

By DENNIS BUECKERT
Source: Canoe News http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/03/01/366750-cp.html
 
OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government was told Western alienation had reached disturbing levels just after Canada ratified the Kyoto protocol, with almost a quarter of one Prairie province saying it wouldn't care if they joined the United States.

Research done 14 months ago by the Ekos polling firm, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information law, doesn't blame alienation on the Kyoto issue. The polling firm points instead to a sense among residents in almost all provinces that their interests and values are ignored in Ottawa.

"On the whole, Western disaffection is a real issue which is somewhat inflamed, particularly in Alberta and Saskatchewan," says an analysis accompanying the poll.

Twenty-three per cent of Saskatchewanians said they would not be too concerned if their province joined the United States, more than in either Alberta or Quebec, where 19 per cent expressed that view.

The poll may help explain why Prime Minister Paul Martin has made Western concerns a key priority while moving cautiously on the Kyoto file. Although he criticized his predecessor for lacking an implementation plan, Martin himself has not introduced one.

The sense of belonging to Canada among Westerners has dropped sharply in the past decade, the Ekos study notes.

As recently as 1995 between 94 and 97 per cent of those in four Western provinces voiced a strong sense of belonging to Canada. That had declined to between 82 and 86 per cent at the time the Ekos poll was taken in December 2002.

The Ekos analysis said the federal government was left with "a new and daunting" national unity challenge: "to address an additional layer of disaffection in the West which is rooted in a perception of both values and interest neglect."

"The potential for a widening of this Western disenchantment is . . . a serious concern (although) the evidence suggests it is more a possibility than a likelihood," added the analysis.

John Bennett of the Sierra Club said fear of Western alienation has clearly led the federal government to major concessions to the oil and gas industry on the Kyoto file.

He cited the federal focus on improving the "energy intensity" of the energy industry, rather than on cutting total emissions.

The poll found majority support for the climate treaty in all provinces except Alberta, where 50 per cent of respondents opposed the accord, compared with 41 per cent who supported it.

Nationally, 79 per cent of respondents supported the agreement, while only eight per cent were opposed. The rest had no opinion.

The poll was based on 1,798 telephone interviews conducted in December 2002, the same month in which the accord was ratified.

The margin of error for pan-Canadian results was plus or minus 2.3 percentage points with a confidence level of 95 per cent. The margin of error for provincial results ranged from 4.4 to 6.3 per cent.